I just wondered how many people were aware of two recent threats to free software.
1. W3C "royalty freee" patent policy proposals. -------------------------------------------- The proposed policy permits W3C members to commit their patent claims "royalty-free" for use by implementers of the standard, but with "field of use" restrictions that would be incompatible with section 7 of the GNU General Public License. Such "field of use" restrictions, in other words, would prevent implementation of W3C standards as Free Software.
Details at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/w3c-patent.html. Comments to W3C must reach www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org by Tuesday 31 December 2002.
2. EU plans to legalise software patents in Europe. ------------------------------------------------ The proposal was drafted by the Business Software Alliance, a US-based group dominated by Microsoft, in cooperation with the European Commission. AFAIK it is still under discussion by the European Comission. It seems to pose a threat to free software and the Internet.
Details and petition at http://petition.eurolinux.org/index.html
If you wish to email any MEP(s) (there are 8 for the Eastern Region), you can find their email addresses at http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm
This all seems very worrying. Does anyone have any more up-to-date knowledge of these issues?
Cheers,
Chris.
Chris Lale ctlale@netscape.net wrote:
I just wondered how many people were aware of two recent threats to free software.
[...]
This all seems very worrying. Does anyone have any more up-to-date knowledge of these issues?
I try to keep informed, but there's a lot to follow, isn't there? Both of the problems you mention can get quite complex in the details and most of the advocates of our point of view are volunteers. Help in tracking them is always appreciated by free software groups.
I think the other really serious imminent problem you missed is the UK's implementation of the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD), which has blown up into a DMCA-style law. The first round of public consultation has closed and the UK's Association For Free Software http://www.affs.org.uk/ was among those submitting detailed responses. The implementation has been postponed while the Patent Office (who seem to deal with copyright law in the UK, bizarrely) consider the large volume of responses and their progress report is at http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/report.htm -- I'm surprised that there weren't more responses, though. We must keep this process going until a fair implementation is created. EUCD must not become a stealth DMCA.
Please join the FSFE-UK mailing list linked from the AFFS.org.uk site if you wish to be informed about these issues. I try to remember to post to the ALUG announcement list when major things happen, but there's a lot else going on.
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Chris Lale -
MJ Ray